Women have been sex objects for centuries. So now that feminism has given women more social status as thinkers, leaders and earners, isn’t it only fair that we treat beautiful men like the delicious hunks of meat they are?

“We are objects. It’s true, we are,” Chris Pratt, the hunky star of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has said. “We’re props. They shine a light on us, they paint us up with makeup, and they take a camera and point it at us. Half the time, what ruins it is us talking.”

Hands up if you are still in love with these teenage pin-ups0:42

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March 14th 2017

5 months ago

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Men’s nude bodies have long been depicted as desirable. The ancient Greeks sculpted luscious gods, sportsmen and kouroi – beautiful youths – in life-size marble. This classical tradition survives: athletes are still some of today’s most desirable men, and at the movies, beautiful actors portray superhumans.

Some blockbuster films and bodice-ripping TV shows, from Magic Mike to Outlander, explicitly cater to thirsty female audiences. When Dakota Johnson ogled Jamie Dornan as he worked out in the recent Fifty Shades Darker, audiences were invited to join in. So if filmmakers are starting to take women seriously as active, desiring viewers, surely that’s something to celebrate?

Well, maybe not so much. In our society, the ability to reduce someone to a sex object is a source of power. And the power balance is still tipped in favour of men’s desires. Today’s ostentatiously ripped movie hunks may frequently get their shirts off, but way fewer films explore the inner lives of women, who still mainly appear onscreen as prizes for heroes to fight for, or as passive sidekicks.

And isn’t it a little depressing that now women have more power in society, female spectators are just being encouraged to use it the same way men always have? Kit Harington, who plays tousle-haired dreamboat Jon Snow on Game of Thrones, wishes people would pay more attention to his acting. Harington told the New York Post: “To always be put on a pedestal as a hunk is slightly demeaning. It really is and it’s in the same way as it is for women.”

Catriona Balfe and Sam Heughan in 'Outlander.' Picture: Supplied

When actors subject themselves to rigorous training regimes and boring diets to present an unnaturally perfected physical form on the big screen, it seems kind of rude not to admire their hard work. But while lusting after your favourite onscreen hottie feels powerful, it’s not necessarily empowering. It can disrespect the intelligence of both actors and fans.

Pratt deliberately chose to play the blockbuster game by resculpting himself from Parks and Recreation’s loveable schlub Andy Dwyer into swaggering space cowboy Peter Quill. “When I turned my body into an object that people liked, I got paid a lot of money,” Pratt said. “My kids can go to college because I’m an object.”

Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark in the BBC drama series. Photo: Supplied

His words echo moustachioed he-man Burt Reynolds in 1972, who explained to a young Roger Ebert why he’d posed nude as a Cosmopolitan centrefold. “As long as you’re reliving each moment to the fullest, what the hell difference does it make? They showed me the photographs, and I chose the one they’re going to use.”

Pratt recognises that being sexually objectified is something male actors can buy into and joke about, while female actors get objectified whether they like it or not. Surely it’s a feminist goal to offer both women and men creative control over how they’re presented. And it’s a feminist act to be mindful of how your own desires affect the thinking, feeling person inside the hunky body you’re ogling.

As Ben Stiller’s male model character Derek Zoolander once philosophised, “There’s more to life than being really, really, really, ridiculously good looking.”

Mel Campbell and Anthony Morris are Melbourne film critics and co-authors of the romantic comedy novel The Hot Guy (Echo Publishing), RRP $29.99, available now.